In hopes of either confirming or setting a standard for non-textbook volume-mass conversions, I'm looking around at popular dough formulas that specify ingredient amounts in volumetric terms, and where a manual attempt at converting the measurements to weights has already been made. This dough formula, mentioned in the initial post, was analyzed and converted by Peter (Pete-zza) based on information given by the author as to how he measured his flour. Peter's post can be found here: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5851.msg55496.html#msg55496

I wanted to see how close my analytics that went into the recent upgrade to the Mass-Volume Conversion Calculator (http://foodsim.toastguard.com/) are compared to Peter's weighings. This was done with another dough formula recently with surprisingly similar numbers (http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6576.msg56374.html#msg56374). For easy reference, I'll reiterate Peter's manually measured and calculated hydration for this dough formula: 66.242%. Using the M-VCC, with the "method of measurement" set at Dip + Shake (per the author's description), these are the weights:

The hydration from such values comes to: 65.9871% That's only off by 0.3848% from Peter's hydration. Changing the depth of the measuring cup by just 0.5 cm accounts for a difference of more than 8.5 times that. So it's safe to say it's within the margin of "cup-depth" error. {If water from honey (3.8880 g) is included, the hydration becomes: 66.8004%.} From this I conclude that once again, the method of measurement's influence on the weight of the ingredient has been adequately represented by the tool. I am satisfied with the approximation if Peter is; and if Peter is satisfied, maybe he won't have to keep running to his measuring cups and scale to determine the weight of everyone's flour when they present their dough formula volumetrically.

I'll always be happy being off by less than a half of a percent on the hydration. When I did the original volume measurements of flour, I tried not to be too self-conscious as I did it and to do it casually as I imagined Jerry would do it. I also knew that I would be able to make adjustments in the final mix because Jerry said that the dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl yet stick to the bowl in the middle. That was an important visual cue for me.

Using your tool should be a big help in the future. I will still have to ask the author of a recipe recited volumetrically how the flour and water were measured out--unless that information is provided up front--but at least I won't have to go to my measuring cups, spoons and scale.

I had to give your recipe a shot, the only thing I changed was the honeyto brown sugar. Otherwise everything was pretty much the same give or takea few min here and there!Your crust was excellent, it had a nice flavor and with the high hydration it waseasy to stretch out. The bottom baked up nicer than normal, and had a good texture to it.

All in all a recipe I would recommend for a one day 2stone bake.

temperature was 750 and the bake time was about 3 min.Definitely better than any one day bake I have done so far.

Drawn to the attention that this topic had been getting, I decided to give this recipe a shot myself.

I didn't have to add much additional flour at all and was quite impressed with the ease of stretch with this dough, as my normal recipe requires more TLC for a good stretch.

The only place I deviated was letting the dough rise 2 hours in a metal bowl rather than the recommended 1.5 hours, and honestly it was simply an oversight on my part.

On the whole I was very impressed with the results. Because my stone and peel are on the smaller side I found that I had to roll the crust up a little bit to make it fit (which speaks to the fine stretching ability of this dough), which suited my fancy just fine. But the bottom was nice and thin with a delicious crust.

Sorry guys, I would take a picture and post it, but there just isn't anything left to photograph. I have the second ball of dough in the fridge now and will snap some pics of that tomorrow.

I think this recipe is very comparable to mine, and I very much appreciate that this allows for same day baking. I believe I will toy around with the recipe a little bit for my own sake, but I was very impressed Jerry.

Because my stone and peel are on the smaller side I found that I had to roll the crust up a little bit to make it fit (which speaks to the fine stretching ability of this dough), which suited my fancy just fine.

DenaliPete,

I look forward to the photos of the next pizza.

BTW, what is the size of your stone and how many pizzas did you make with Jerry's recipe? I assume you used volume measurements.

I feel I should be a little more specific in regards to my stone and peel;

My problem partially lay with my peel, which is 12 inches, whereas my stone is roughly 15 inches. I also must chalk a large part of my need to roll the crust to pilot error. I'm still very much a novice in the pizza world and am still very sketchy with the actual shaping of my pie. They often end up a little more like a rounded out rectangle than a circular pie that many people are used to. Had I a bit more experience shaping the dough I may not have had any problem fitting the skin on my peel.

I also ran into a slight bit of trouble when transferring from the peel to the stone, so my placement on the stone wasn't perfect and I had a small portion of the pizza hanging off the stone. I also ended up with some toppings just spilling directly onto the stone, which is no fun. I suspect that next time I'll have to be more liberal with my use of flour on the paddle.

I split my dough into two as per Jerry's instructions, and only made one pizza last night, leaving the other to sit in the fridge, I have it warming up on the countertop as we speak. I'm beginning to believe that I could split the dough into thirds next time and still come up with a decent sized pie.

Your assumption of volumetric measurements is correct. In all my recipes I've taken to measuring by volume rather than weight...this is more than anything due to my own inexperience. To be honest, looking at the numbers by weight as well as measuring hydration, etc. kinda makes my head spin.

Jerry's dough is a high hydration dough, but your results should improve as you gain more experience handling such doughs. You also have to act fast in dressing the pizza to minimize the likelihood of the dough sticking to the peel. You might try using some semolina flour on your peel in lieu of regular flour. Or you can dress the pizza on a sheet of parchment paper before depositing the pizza onto the stone.

I asked about the use of volume measurements because it is fairly easy to downsize Jerry's recipe to make 12" pizzas if that is what you are after. I think I can help you with that if you are interested.

Are you using barley malt syrup or honey? And what brand and type of flour and what kind of salt (e.g., table salt, Morton's or Diamond Crystal Kosher) are you using, and how many pizzas do you want to make?

Here are some final shots. Tasted great! I noticed the spring in the crust, but it did not seem as much as I have observed in previous posts. I attribute that to either waiting 2 days to make the pizza, or possibly overworking the crust a little. Overall, though, nice dough recipe. Very flavorful. I give it a B+/A-.

Being from the UK I struggle to find many of the ingredients on this forum.

For example:

No King Arthur Flour & strongest bread style flour I have found is 13.8%No 6in1 tomatoes or any other brands favoured on the forum.Very hard to find decent pepperoni. I have ended up using a blend of 2 to get the right balance of smokiness and spiciness.

Regarding the above if anyone from the UK can recommend brands please le me know.

I have been trying out a few of the recipes on the board with varying success, none that I tried though featured a starter as I didnít feel confident enough to maintain one.

However as this recipe included a very easy to make starter I decided to give it a go.

So far I have made the poolish and mixed it in with the remainder of the ingredients.

The poolish looked exactly as shown in this thread.

It is currently having itís 1st 90 minute rise.

I will split this to make 3 pizzas as I only have a pizza oven with a 12 inch stone (similar to the G3 Ferrari ovens)

Must be the warm weather here but the dough rose enough to use well before the 2nd 90 minutes rest.

The balls were very nice to work with, easy to stretch and had great window paining (much better than I have ever had before)

Each made one 12 inch pie no problem, the oven spring was the best ever. The rim on each skin was approximately 1/4 inch before baking, but rose to an inch and more. The crush browned very nicely and had a superb crunch with a creamy soft interior.

Far and away the best same day pizza I have ever made, I would even go so far as to say probably the best compared to overnight.

I now need to find some better quality sauce and toppings as this dough has really upped the stakes.

I have in the past used a bread machine on dough setting for pizzas and found that it was never as good as hand kneading. I mixed this in the bread maker and it easily beat anything Iíve hand mixed.

Based on the success of the jerry's starter/sponge/poolish, I was motivated to goto sourdo.com last night and order the Italian starter. It should arrive early next week.

Thanks Jerry for making me take it up another notch. I'll document how it goes.

My wife comments that the dough was my most 'flavorful' yet and I'm sure that was the main reason. I'm also intrigued by the use of 2 tsp of yeast. For so many years, I've been told to go super light on the yeast - and with the additional yeast, I've found it to not impart any negative qualities.

Well I couldn't wait any longer, my pizza oven died a while ago and I've not had the cash required to purchase a replacement.

I bit the bullet and bough a pizza stone to try in my home oven, this is my 1st attempt using the Jerrymac dough method. (JM's is my favourite recipe/technique, this is the 1st time I have made it in my standard oven

The top was done to perfection with a lovely snap to the crust, but the bottom was very underdone, soft and I would have to say doughy.

I've tried to get a fibrament stone but the company never replied to my emails regarding shipping to the UK.

There are some stones being tested on the forum where the bottom of the pizza's cooked have been overdone compared to the top (on a modified Little Black Egg) I'm wondering if one of those would work better for my current circumstances.

FYI. The stone was at the top of the oven with the broiler turned on full, any lower down and the pizza cooked way too slow and was like a cracker.

Another possibility that occurs to me is to use a pizza screen, if you have one, together with a pizza stone. The stone would be placed at the lowest oven position and preheated for an hour at 260 degrees C. The pizza is initially baked on the pizza screen at the topmost oven position. When the rim of the pizza starts to expand and turn a light brown (the cheeses should be starting to bubble), the pizza is shifted off of the screen (which can then be removed from the oven) to the preheated stone to get the desired degree of bottom crust browning and crispiness.

A further alternative is to bake the pizza directly on the preheated pizza stone and shift it to the topmost oven position when the bottom of the crust is as you like it so that the top of the pizza can finish baking if such is needed (with or without using the broiler).

JerryMac's recipe produces a very high hydration dough (between about 65-70% by my estimation) so you may need to do some experimenting with bake times, temperatures, stone/screen options, and positioning within the oven to achieve the desired results.